In patients with some types of tumors, the most reliable method for identifying a recurrence is radiologic imaging. For example patients with brain tumors are routinely followed using MRI scans with and without contrast. These modalities are often subject to interpretation and can be subjective in nature. In addition, in some cases, this type of imaging may indicate tumor recurrence, but in fact the abnormality turns out to be treatment effect. Depending on the type of tumor, surgical intervention can be highly invasive, with extensive recovery time.
A less invasive method to reliably identify tumor recurrence would be valuable to clinicians and their patients during evaluations following treatment and/or surgical resection of a tumor.